1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to information processing apparatus and method and, more particularly, to a hyper text reader such as a WWW (World Wide Web) browser or the like for performing a reading process of a hyper text which is hierarchically constructed.
2. Related Background Art
As a technique of a conventional hyper text reader such as a WWW browser or the like, a xe2x80x9cNavigatorxe2x80x9d (made by Netscape Co., Ltd.), an xe2x80x9cInternet Explorerxe2x80x9d (made by Microsoft Co., Ltd.), or the like is known.
FIG. 8 shows a constructional example of a conventional hyper text reader. FIG. 9 shows expression contents of a conventional WWW browser 24 displayed on a display screen of display means 5 in FIG. 8. A conventional reading process of a hyper text document will now be described hereinbelow.
Hitherto, in case of reading a hyper text document 62 in a network 61 on the link destination side shown in FIG. 8, in a document of a page 27 which is hierarchically constructed and can be expressed by a display screen as shown in FIG. 9 , a drawing object called an anchor A which is expressed by a text or an image shown by an underline, a highlight, or the like is instructed by using instruction means 1 such as mouse, keyboard, or the like, thereby accessing the link destination shown in the anchor A.
In this instance, a mark indicating that the document has already been read is added to the accessed anchor A by mark addition means 2. The present page position is registered into a page position memory stack 6 by page position registration means 3. The hyper text document 62 in the network 61 on the link destination side is searched by access means 4. A desired page of the accessed hyper text document 62 is displayed by the display means 5.
To return the display screen to an original page (business trip report page) 27, a preceding button 22 written as xe2x80x9cBACKxe2x80x9d or the like is instructed by the instruction means 1, so that page position call means 8 obtains a page position from the page position memory stack 6, thereby making it possible to access to the original page 27. The accessed original page 27 is displayed by the display means 5. Further, to progress the display screen to a next page, by instructing a succeeding button 21 by the instruction means 1, the apparatus can access to the next page by a process similar to that of the preceding button 22 and display. In a display screen as shown in FIG. 9 after the original page or next page was accessed as mentioned above, by instructing the anchor A by the instruction means 1, the hyper text document 62 can be read.
In the conventional construction as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, to instruct the anchor A in the document in the page 27 which is hierarchically constructed, as mentioned above, first by instructing the succeeding button 21 or preceding button 22 by the instruction means 1, a target page to be read (for example, business trip report page) is displayed on the display screen. In the target page, by instructing the anchor A of the underlined document or the like by the instruction means 1, the hyper text document 62 is read through the access means 4.
To read the hyper text document 62 as mentioned above, the operations of the succeeding button 21 and preceding button 22 to change the display screen and the operation to instruct the anchor A to be accessed to the link destination have to be properly judged and executed each time by the operator. Particularly, in case of searching the anchor A which is not yet read, the pages which were hierarchically constructed have to be sequentially traced, it takes time for the processing operation and operability is poor.
Generally, in many cases, to fill up the formed hyper text document, the person who makes a page allows an anchor to link with an associated external page to be included. There is a case where whether the anchor is an anchor to be accessed to the outside or not cannot be discriminated if only characters or image written in the anchor are used. In such a case, according to conventional techniques, by moving a mouse cursor to a position over the anchor, the link destination of the anchor can be displayed in a part of the screen.
Since the link destination cannot be known if the mouse is not matched with position of the anchor by moving, in the case where the operator who executes the reading operation merely wants to obtain only information which is derived from a server of the accessed page, it is necessary to match the position of the mouse cursor with that of the anchor and to confirm the link destination every time, so that operability deteriorates.
An aspect of the invention is to provide a WWW browser which performs a reading process of a hierarchically constructed hypertext. The browser has an automatic linking process of sequentially searching pages of the hierarchically constructed hypertext. Control is provided such that an instruction from an automatic linking instruction device is used as trigger, and a first non-read anchor is searched by an anchor search device. If there is a no-read anchor, a hypertext of a network on the link destination side is accessed, and if there is no non-read anchor, a processing routine is returned to the original page.